What is Reproduction: Definition and 33 Discussions

Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. Reproduction is a fundamental feature of all known life; each individual organism exists as the result of reproduction. There are two forms of reproduction: asexual and sexual.
In asexual reproduction, an organism can reproduce without the involvement of another organism. Asexual reproduction is not limited to single-celled organisms. The cloning of an organism is a form of asexual reproduction. By asexual reproduction, an organism creates a genetically similar or identical copy of itself. The evolution of sexual reproduction is a major puzzle for biologists. The two-fold cost of sexual reproduction is that only 50% of organisms reproduce and organisms only pass on 50% of their genes.Sexual reproduction typically requires the sexual interaction of two specialized organisms, called gametes, which contain half the number of chromosomes of normal cells and are created by meiosis, with typically a male fertilizing a female of the same species to create a fertilized zygote. This produces offspring organisms whose genetic characteristics are derived from those of the two parental organisms.

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  1. entropy1

    Recombining DNA in reproduction

    I understand that DNA strands have two sides with amino acids, and that the amino acids connect to each other by being the opposite of each other (A-T, C-G). I also understand that the reproductory DNA of the organisms reproducing each consist of one side of each of the DNA strands, that...
  2. mktsgm

    Medical Virus Reproduction: Understanding the Paradox

    Science believes that a virus does not have life. They do not display any of the properties of 'life' such as homeostasis - they lack, growth - they don't grow, response to stimuli - they don't respond etc. i.e., They're not as alive as bacteria, animals, humans. If so, how come they want to...
  3. B

    Humanoid-Alien Reproduction.... Should It Be Like Us Or Not?

    I will discuss the pros and cons of doing this in scifi. Like Us Pros: 1. We can understand it. 2. Romance with aliens if that's your thing. Like Us Cons: 1. Seems rather conveinient that humanoid aliens living LY away reproduce like us... with the same organs. I dunno... after taking pains...
  4. Ygggdrasil

    Medical Advances towards creating sperm and eggs in the lab

    Since @BillTre mentioned he was previously interested in generating fish sperm cells in the lab, I though I'd share a recent article from MIT's Technology Review magazine covering recent advances in reproductive biology toward generating sperm and egg cells in the lab through cellular...
  5. physicist007

    How would menstrual cycle be affected if one ovary fails?

    How would the menstrual cycle of a woman be affected if one of the ovaries fails( or removed surgically)?
  6. N

    Can asexual reproduction be the cause of genetic variations

    In plants , Spores are produced ( asexual reproduction) as a result of meiosis , so there should be genetic variations as meiosis causes genetic variations! please help to clarify the concept
  7. Salvador

    Radiation exposure on person effects on it's reproduction

    Hi, recently this conversation came up with me and one of my friends talking about the nuclear tourists of these days which is becoming more and more part of urban exploration. Now I tried google but I mainly got results talking about the risk and effects of radiation exposure during birth and...
  8. Stephanus

    Ant Reproduction Without Queen: Possible?

    Dear PF Forum, Can ants reproduce without their ant queen? Supposed I trap some ants, perhaps tens to 1 hundred. And I keep them in a box, ventilated with some food - candy; chocolate; Will they reproduce, considering in 1 hundred ants, not all of them will be all males or all females. Or they...
  9. gracy

    Asexual Reproduction: Can Parthenogenesis Create Only Female Offspring?

    Can parthenogenesis only perform by females ?and can produce females offspring only?
  10. anubodh

    Mosquito Reproduction Technique

    How can we reproduce mosquitoes artificially from a single mosquito? I know there is a technique like this but i do not know the name. Can this technique be used to reproduce many mosquitoes from a single mosquito?
  11. E

    Lightscribe graphene super capacitor reproduction

    I am trying to reproduce Kaner and El-Kadys Graphene based electrochemical capacitors (ECs). The process reduces Graphite-oxide (GO) to laser-scribed graphene (LSG) using a lightscribe. I think I have figured out a way to produce the graphite-oxide from watching a couple of great videos on...
  12. M

    Eta (Reproduction Factor) Impact of Fuel Leg Change

    why does eta(Reproduction Factor) fall down when we change fuel leg from maximum level of yield?
  13. C

    Reproduction of a Police Accident Report Physics 30 Question

    http://mail.rdcrd.ab.ca/~smolesky/Physics30/1Conservation/Consassign2.pdf this is the link to the question, could someone please solve question one? We finished the momentum unit in physics 30 today and i would like some help on this question
  14. manojr

    Relation between reproduction and age

    In this Article there is a remark by biologist "It's one of the basic lessons in biology: Reproduction is very costly, and if you don't use it, you can live much longer". Can someone give few examples of species that live longer if they don't reproduce?
  15. R

    Reproduction and Human evolution

    Hey, I recently watched a video on YouTube by Kenneth Miller, The collapse of Intelligent Design. One of the things he brought up in the lecture was a comparison between. Human and chimpanzee genome. What was specifically said was that we had 23 pairs of chromosomes while the chimp and all...
  16. T

    Is sexual reproduction in yeast isogamous or anisogamous

    also what is an example of an organism inferred to have evolved from igonamy to anisogamy besides sperm and egg? is yeast an example of this??
  17. I

    Reproduction of the phenomenon with sand

    Hello, guys, I am new here. I'm wondering, what kind of sand should I use to reproduce this phenomenon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7LpmE9hl-c&feature=related I've tried several kinds of sand, but the phenomenon hasn't observed. What density should sand has? What is the fraction (diametr)...
  18. N

    Is sexual reproduction an example of convergent evolution?

    Second thread on the evolution of like, in the Archaen and Proterozoic eons. There are many kinds of eyes, and many have arisen quite independently; the classic example of convergent evolution. Did sexual reproduction arise more than once, independently? Is it too an example of convergent...
  19. P

    AP BIO: asexual and sexual reproduction

    Homework Statement What environmental conditions would favor sexual reproduction? What environmental conditions would favor asexual reproduction? Organism - sexual reproduction - gonads asexual reproduction - honeybees 2. Is pillbugs an asexually organism or is a sexually organism? I...
  20. C

    Darwinism, Reproduction and QM

    This is a whacky idea but i thought why not try it out here and see what folks think. This theory is based on accepting an observer-centric interpretation of qm. Many won't agree with that but its important in order to make sense of my argument. So let's pretend that the existence of an...
  21. T

    Reproduction Issue: Polynomial or Exponential?

    Hello, let's have this scenario. We have a parameter n and a exponentially large (in n) universe of organisms. We are given a subset of this universe, which is only polynomially large. The only action which the organisms are able to do is that two compatible organisms join together and a new...
  22. Mallignamius

    Genitalia: Why waste elimination AND reproduction?

    Why do genitalia serve this dual purpose? Is there some payoff or benefit for these organs to provide both functions of waste elimination and sexual reproduction?
  23. moe darklight

    From unicellular to multicellular reproduction. paradox?

    I'm having a little trouble picturing how this would happen and I can't find any information on this. I understand that the jump from a unicellular organism to a multicellular matrix can happen, but I'm having trouble picturing how a matrix of genetically identical cells can evolve into a...
  24. B

    Concave mirrors and reproduction of an actual object

    hiya I'm having some problems understanding concave mirrors and their reproduction of actual object. 1) Can you show me some proof as to why all rays of light from the object converge at the same point ( image point )? 2) I'm having hard time understanding how person...
  25. edward

    Funny Reproduction: Watch these Critters Faint!

    How do these critters reproduce, it seems like they would faint at the crucial moment and there would be a misconception.:wink: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-143292750174818734&q=funny+video&hl=en
  26. L

    ART'S ( assisted reproduction technology)

    hi, can someone please help me answer this questions concerning ART's. 1.which assisted reproductive technologies might help the following couples? a) a woman who is born without a uterus, but manufactures healthy ova. b) a man whoese cancer treatment greatly damage his sperm c)a...
  27. M

    Reproduction in poor and unhealthy environments

    I am thinking about going back to school to study how nanotechnology can help solve our problems of global clean water distribution. I am absolutely horrified by the statistics on parasites, microbes, and inorganic junk that swims in the drinking water of certain highly populated areas. Then I...
  28. D

    Exploring Nature's Mysteries: Birth Without Reproduction

    Billions of years ago, what if a species had been born without a particular part of its body for i.e reproduction ? In developmental biology, why can an egg and a sperm gives birth to an embryo, which was termed I think only after we had already known more about this kind of phenomenon ? Why...
  29. C

    Sexual Reproduction of Asperigillius

    Can some one explain sexual reproduction of Asperigillius especially the part about dikaryons.
  30. wasteofo2

    What to eat to aid in red blood cell reproduction?

    I'm going to turn 17 soon, the legal age at which one can donate blood in my state, and I plan on donating blood soon thereafter. Being that I've never done it before, and I'm not tremendously active (thus don't have a particularly strong heart, thus figure that losing a relatively small amount...
  31. R

    Robotic Reproduction: Constructing Identical Robots from "Food

    just got off the phone. the topic was about some Mechanical Engineering prof that has made some robots that can assemble identical robots from "food" that contains cubes with components some that contain microprocessors. i called in and told them that it wasn't comparable to biological...
  32. A

    Psychoacoustic modeled compression and sound reproduction

    My question regards some of the audio compression codecs and the effects they have on physical audio reproduction and power consumption. Specifically, I am referring to the well known "lossy" codecs such as mp3, Ogg Vorbis, and MusePack. These codecs use algorithms designed around a...
  33. R

    Please help me with this? Cell reproduction.

    Please help me with this?? Cell reproduction. Hi, Can any1 tell me the difference between fission and mitosis in cell reproduction? Also how do amobae reproduce? Thanks for any help you can offer. Reb
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